By Bob Allen A current Southern Baptist Convention leader says looking back 30 years after Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Roy Honeycutt’s famous “Holy War Sermon,” the moderate Baptist leader’s call to arms seems destined to fail. Among other things,…
A picture worth 500 words: WMU’s 125th anniversary prompts a lively visit
By Bob Allen Members of Woman’s Missionary Union wrapped up a yearlong celebration of the Southern Baptist Convention auxiliary’s 125th anniversary with a rare photo-op. Annie Armstrong, who led in framing the WMU constitution in 1888 and served as the…
Church holds final service before demolition for stadium
By Bob Allen Members of a Baptist church in Atlanta gathered for the last time May 25 in a historic building being demolished to make way for a new Atlanta Falcons football stadium. Friendship Baptist Church, established in 1862 and…
Pressler says SBC controversy started in Houston church
By Bob Allen The “conservative resurgence” that transformed the Southern Baptist Convention three decades ago began in the halls of Second Baptist Church in Houston, the movement’s chief architect told seminary students April 15. Paul Pressler, a former Texas Appeals…
Festival to mark 300 years of Baptist witness in Virginia
By Robert Dilday Three centuries after an English “messenger” arrived in Virginia to organize the first Baptist church there, a celebration this spring will mark 300 years of Baptist witness in the state. The May 16-17 event will include both…
‘Duck Dynasty’ and the struggle over Christianity
By Thomas Whitley There is no such thing as Christianity. Let me repeat myself so you know I really meant to say it: There is no such thing as Christianity. What we have instead are reifications and definitions. As with…
‘Duck Dynasty’ and the struggle over Christianity
By Thomas Whitley There is no such thing as Christianity. Let me repeat myself so you know I really meant to say it: There is no such thing as Christianity. What we have instead are reifications and definitions. As with…
2013: The year in deaths
Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care. He was 75. Justice Anderson, 83, longtime…
2013: The year in quotes
“For some reason, in our immaturity, the assumption always is that our Christianity is the standard and our Baptist Christianity is the standard. And, of course, it’s not.” (Kathe Traynham) “No one outside the tribe is going to celebrate these…
2013: The year in Baptist news
By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship introduced Suzii Paynter as executive coordinator Jan. 17. The third person to hold the job and the first woman, the former director of both the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission was officially elected…
Obama lauds Baptist civil-rights icon
By Bob Allen President Obama noted the passing of T.J. Jemison, a civil-rights icon who organized a 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, La., that became the non-violent protest model adopted by Martin Luther King two years later in Montgomery,…
Between heaven and hell
By Leroy Seat Americans remember Nov. 22, 1963, as the date of the assassination of President Kennedy. And the public media has widely publicized today’s 50th anniversary of that tragic event. Some Christians will remember that Nov. 22, 1963, was…